Monday, June 13, 2016

Does Luck Exist?

I'd like to start off by apologizing for not updating on Saturday, but it's been a crazy weekend and I'm just going to leave it at that. Also, I'm making up for it now.

Luck: success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.

Throughout my life I've witnessed many events that I consider to be caused by luck. I suppose it all could be considered just one big coincidence, but isn't that what luck is?

My sister swears that rabbits are her good luck charms. Whenever she sees a rabbit outside, she believes it's going to be a good day or that something good will happen. I don't know if it's turned out to be true every time, but it makes her happy and hopeful when she sees one, so I assume that's what matters.

Someone once told me that every choice you make will always be the choice you were meant to make. It doesn't matter how torn you may be between your decision, you were always going to choose the one you did. It's difficult to wrap your head around that, but just let it sink in for a while and maybe you'll begin to see what he meant. He explained that that is one of the reasons why he doesn't believe in luck. I told him I didn't like that because it makes me feel trapped.

Although what he said makes sense to me and is logical, I don't see why that should lead him to not believe in luck. What about when your decision leads you to an incredible opportunity because someone else's decision lines up with yours? Coincidence or luck?

What about when in elementary school a little boy began choking on a donut and a mom who works as a nurse just so happened to be in the building at that time? Or when I just happened to be walking down a street that had a lone twenty dollar bill on the side of it? How about when a mother, working off of her last speck of hope, finds a doctor to help her newborn baby with a method that doesn't include surgery?

Sometimes it seems like things occur too perfectly to be coincidence. There's something magical about the way everything lines up perfectly and you're left wondering how it's possible.

There's no proof that luck exists, but for some reason there's this feeling inside me that makes me believe in it. Maybe it's hope for good things or maybe I'm just naïve. Either way, it makes the good things that happen seem even more special.

You can choose to believe in whatever you'd like, but I choose to believe in luck.